Variants
Ranked play in Hand and Foot Frenzy is built around a monthly variant rotation. Every month a single rule delta swaps in, every Ranked match in that window uses it, and the leaderboard resets at the start of the next variant.
Rotation Status
The monthly rotation has not started yet — the first Ranked variant has not been published. Ranked is still in private partner-group testing, and the rotation launches when Ranked opens to all Pro subscribers. The sections below describe the categories of rule deltas a variant may introduce so you know what to expect; this page is updated each month with a new variant card the moment the rotation goes live.
How a Variant Works
A variant is a small, named change to the base Hand and Foot rules. Variants are deliberately narrow — every variant keeps the four-round structure, the two-stage Hand and Foot deal, melds with a minimum of three cards and no upper limit, canastas of seven, and the standard card values. They tweak one surface — usually scoring, the opening threshold, or what it takes to go out — and leave the rest of the game alone.
Casual play (Solo + Multiplayer) is unaffected. Variants only apply inside Ranked matches during the month a variant is active. When the variant rotates, all in-progress Ranked matches finish under the variant they started with — the rotation only changes what new Ranked matches use.
Scoring tweaks
A variant may adjust how points are awarded without changing how cards are played. The base rules — face values, canasta sizes, hand-and-foot deal — stay intact.
Example variants
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Double-bonus week: clean canasta pays +1000, dirty pays +600.
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Joker premium: jokers in dirty melds count for 100 face value instead of 50.
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Going-out bonus doubled.
None of the examples above are currently active — they illustrate the shape only.
Threshold tweaks
A variant may shift the per-round opening minimums up or down to make early-round play looser or tighter. The four-round structure is preserved.
Example variants
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Fast-open: minimums lowered to 30 / 60 / 90 / 120.
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Patience: minimums raised to 90 / 120 / 150 / 180.
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Flat: every round opens at 90.
None of the examples above are currently active — they illustrate the shape only.
Going-out rule tweaks
A variant may adjust the canasta requirement that gates going out. The default gate is four clean and three dirty in team play / one clean and one dirty solo — variants may add to or substitute that.
Example variants
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Double-down: requires two clean canastas and two dirty canastas.
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Pure: requires only clean canastas — no dirty book required.
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No-permission: the partner cannot block the close.
None of the examples above are currently active — they illustrate the shape only.
Related
RulesThe full base rules variants build on.Scoring ChartCard values, canasta bonuses, penalties, and a worked total.Going Down by RoundPer-round opening minimums with worked examples.Strategy: Melding WildsWild-card decisions a scoring variant would amplify.Strategy: Freezing the PileFreeze plays whose value swings under different scoring variants.Strategy: Going-Out TimingClosing decisions a going-out-rule variant would reshape.